Mobile apps
Toby ships real iOS and Android apps — not web wrappers. Workspace tabs are accessible from phone. Sessionat is Chromium-only today; mobile is on the roadmap but not available.
Sessionat vs Toby
In November 2024, Toby capped the free tier at 60 tabs overnight and forced existing users to log in. The rating dropped from around 4.4 to 4.2 and hasn't recovered. German reviews called it "Mafia Methoden." Sessionat is free forever for unlimited local sessions — and adds AI on top.
Installs (Chrome)
Sessionat
2,000+
Toby
300,000+
Rating
Sessionat
4.3★ (35)
Toby
4.2★ (3,300)
Last update
Sessionat
April 2026
Toby
April 2026
Pricing
Sessionat
Free · Pro $19/mo
Toby
60-tab free / $4.50+/mo
Data verified April 2026
The trade-off
The honest trade-off
Toby's paywall pivot is the most-quoted cautionary tale in the tab-manager category in 2026. The founders' own “An Open Message to Our Toby Community” blog post acknowledged a 6-person team and framed the change as “Toby may not survive past its current form” without it. That's a legitimate business reality, but existing users experienced it as overnight data lock-out.
To Toby's credit: they grandfathered pre-2023 accounts to keep free access, their iOS + Android apps are genuinely excellent, and paid Toby ($4.50/mo annual) is the cheapest SaaS in the workspace category. Their “Toby AI” auto-organize feature is real, but paid-only.
Sessionat's bet is the opposite: free forever for local, pay only for AI. If you want collaborative team workspaces with deep integrations, Toby or Workona are genuinely better fits. If you want the same “unlimited tabs, auto-organize by AI” experience without a 60-tab cap, Sessionat Free covers it — and Pro ($19/mo) unlocks 5,000 monthly AI credits across every feature.
| Feature | Sessionat | Toby |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited tabs on free tier | ✗ | |
| AI auto-organize tabs | Paid only | |
| AI semantic search | ✗ | |
| AI chat about browsing history | ✗ | |
| iOS + Android apps | ✗ | |
| Collaborative team workspaces | Pro (5 seats) | |
| Cross-device sync | Pro tier | |
| Privacy: local-first storage | ✗ | |
| Active daily development | ||
| Free tier guarantee | 60-tab cap |
Honest assessment
What Toby does better
Team collaboration
Toby's collection sharing and live workspace collaboration are polished. Sessionat Pro supports up to 5 team members per organization, but shared “live editing” of a workspace is not yet a feature.
Design polish
Toby's UI has won design awards. It is genuinely one of the most beautiful productivity tools on the Chrome Web Store. Our design is newer; we'll let it age into something comparable.
FAQ
Real questions we get about Toby.
Can I move my Toby collections into Sessionat?
Yes, for free-tier users. Export your workspace from Toby (Menu → Export), then import into Sessionat via Settings → Import. Each Toby collection becomes a Sessionat session. Pre-2023 grandfathered Toby accounts export the same way.
What exactly changed in Toby's November 2024 paywall?
Free accounts were capped at 60 saved tabs. Accounts created before 2023 are grandfathered with unlimited free tabs. New free accounts over the cap must upgrade to keep their tabs accessible. The change was enforced overnight; German reviews famously called it "Mafia Methoden."
Is Toby going out of business?
The founders said "Toby may not survive past its current form" without the paywall. As of April 2026 they are still shipping (last update April 2026) and still employ 6 people. It is a small team with real existential risk; users should keep local exports as backup.
How does Sessionat's AI compare to Toby AI?
Toby AI is an auto-organize feature that groups tabs into named collections. Sessionat does the same thing (Bulk Categorize) and also ships semantic search, AI chat, pattern detection, and research mode. Both are paid features; Sessionat includes 100 credits free vs Toby's zero-AI free tier.
Is Sessionat really free forever for the local features?
Yes. Unlimited sessions, unlimited tabs, keyword search, export, import — all free, no credit card. You only pay if you want AI. If we ever change the free tier, existing users get grandfathered. We published the "Toby lesson" internally as a rule.
Try Sessionat in 12 seconds.
Free forever for local features. No account needed to start. Import your Toby sessions via JSON.
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